When people think about efforts that AMC put into racing during the 1970s they always default to NASCAR and Trans-Am. People largely forget that the company had a pro stock program the likes of which actually turned into a championship contender after a couple of seasons of hard work. This video below is proof of that as it shows Wally Booth and Dave Kanners, both driving AMC Hornets racing in the finals at the NHRA World Finals in Ontario, California circa 1976. It would be the first and only time two AMC ever ran for the money at an NHRA national event.
The two teams were unique in the fact that the Kanners and Maskin operation was more of the R&D wing of the AMC effort and the Booth/Arons combo was more considered the “lead” car. The work that Maskin and Kanners did over the winter leading into the 1974 season took what was a bit of a struggling effort and made it into something capable of winning, which Wally Booth did at the 1974 Gatornationals. 1975 was a quiet year with no final round appearances but 1976, when this video was made would be the one that really put them on the map.
Dick Arons discovered that he could essentially fillet two sets of AMC heads and weld them back together to increase port volume and massively increase air flow which garnered the team a bunch of power and put them right in the thick of things. While Kanners only made one final, he had a ton of big round wins. Booth was a force. He won the Springnationals, US Nationals, Fallnationals, and as you will see below (spoiler alert!) World Finals against his team car in Kanners. Booth finished top three in the points and the viability of the AMC program was proven.
That being said, 1976 was the high water mark for performance and accolades that the team grabbed. Booth raced his car (updating the sheet metal) through 1979 before he retired. Dick Maskin went on to form Dart and is now one of the most respected block and head men in the industry. Dave Kanners unfortunately passed from cancer about 10 years ago. After he retired from drag racing he became an ultra-marathoner and world class runner. Dick Arons is part of the team at Dart with Maskin and Wally Booth is still in the racing engine business up there in Michigan.
This is a really cool moment in time and one that AMC fans should all be proud of!
Its crazy how they turn a hohum Hornet into one of the coolest Pro Stockers of all time. Now someone needs to recreate one of these for the nostalgia Pro Stock circuit.